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Garden on the Moon

av Pierre Boulle

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review of
Pierre Boulle's Garden on the Moon
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - March 29, 2018

Once again, my review is tooooooooo looooonnnnnnngggggg. SO, to read the full thing go here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/619777-pierre-boulle . Otherwise, the review below gets chopped off in mid-thought (& you know how messy that can be).

Boulle is a writer I avoided for a long time precisely b/c he wrote Planet of the Apes, the movie from wch I associated too much w/ cheesy pop culture. I learned that he wrote Bridge Over the River Kwai, wch was also made into a movie I'd seen, & that didn't help increase my interest. Nonetheless, it seemed 'about time' to read something more obscure by him & I'm glad I did b/c it turned out to be well-written & well-thought-thru.

The author provides an introductory note about dating the bk:

"To describe events twenty-thousand years in advance does not intimidate me unduly, but the task becomes more delicate when it is a question of only six or seven years. What disturbs me most is a still close future, the short period intervening between the present time and the date of publication. Since the conquest of space is failr closely linked to the politics of the nations that have embarked upon it, and since these politics are sometimes subject to rapid change, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that two weeks after the book is published (a reasonable length of time to assume without hypocrisy that it will not yet have sunk into oblivion), some unexpected event might so affect the contents as to make them appear absurd to a contemporary reader." - p 5

I find that very interesting. Boulle really did write something challenging: a bk hypothesizing about the 'space race' to the moon while that race was beginning & projecting its immediate future. He must've been paying close attn to relevant contemporary events & he must've researched it reasonably well too.

"I treated these materials as it seemed to me a conscientious novelist should—that is, first I worked hard to indoctrinate myself as accurately as possible, and after that I devoted almost as much energy to forgetting all details, preserving only the bare skeleton of the facts and ideas and often altering historical events when I thought that clarity and compactness of the narrative might be improved by so doing." - p 6

This author's note is dated February, 1964, a mere 5 yrs, 5 mnths before the US landed a human on the Moon on July 20, 1969 (unless you believe that the moon landing was faked by Stanley Kubrick or whomever as some people do). I think he did an astonishingly excellent job of realistically detailing the race & still managing to provide a satisfying novelistic conclusion.

A core event in this space race is presented as the development of the V2 rocket at Peenemünde.

"The Peenemünde Army Research Centre (German: Heeresversuchsanstalt Peenemünde, HVP) was founded in 1937 as one of five military proving grounds under the German Army Weapons Office (Heereswaffenamt)"

[..]

"Wernher von Braun was the HVP technical director (Dr. Walter Thiel was deputy director) and there were nine major departments:
1 Technical Design Office (Walter J H "Papa" Riedel)
2 Aeroballistics and Mathematics Laboratory (Dr. Hermann Steuding)
3 Wind Tunnel (Dr. Rudolph Hermann)
4 Materials Laboratory (Dr. Mäder)
5 Flight, Guidance, and Telemetering Devices (German: BSM) (Dr. Ernst Steinhoff)
6 Development and Fabrication Laboratory (Arthur Rudolph)
7 Test Laboratory (Klaus Riedel)
8 Future Projects Office (Ludwig Roth)
9 Purchasing Office (Mr. Genthe)"

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peenemünde_Army_Research_Center

"Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun (March 23, 1912 – June 16, 1977) was a German, later American, aerospace engineer, and space architect. He was the leading figure in the development of rocket technology in Germany and the father of rocket technology and space science in the United States.

"In his twenties and early thirties, von Braun worked in Nazi Germany's rocket development program. He helped design and develop the V-2 rocket at Peenemünde during World War II. Following the war, von Braun was secretly moved to the United States, along with about 1,600 other German scientists, engineers, and technicians, as part of Operation Paperclip. He worked for the United States Army on an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) program and he developed the rockets that launched the United States' first space satellite Explorer 1. His group was assimilated into NASA, where he served as director of the newly formed Marshall Space Flight Center and as the chief architect of the Saturn V super heavy-lift launch vehicle that propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon. In 1975, von Braun received the National Medal of Science. He advocated for a human mission to Mars."

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun

Wernher von Braun is the main character of Garden on the Moon, under the name of Stern. It's strange that the Wikipedia entry regarding Peenemünde lists the novels using it as a primary element but leaves out Garden on the Moon:

"Peenemünde is a setting in the novels Fatherland, Gravity's Rainbow, Moonraker, The Rhinemann Exchange, The Way the Crow Flies, and Space." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peenemünde_Army_Research_Center

"By the time he was able to use his binoculars, the first V2 rocket was no more than an imperceptible dot in the sky." - p 16

von Braun / Stern is portrayed as being obsessed w/ putting someone on the moon & sending a manned expedition to Mars. He's also portrayed as developing the V2 as a step in that direction. Unfortunately, the V2 was used to bombard cities by the nazis:

"3,172 V-2 rockets were fired at the following targets:

"Belgium, 1664: Antwerp (1610), Liège (27), Hasselt (13), Tournai (9), Mons (3), Diest (2)
"United Kingdom, 1402: London (1358), Norwich (43), Ipswich (1)
"France, 76: Lille (25), Paris (22), Tourcoing (19), Arras (6), Cambrai (4)
"Netherlands, 19: Maastricht (19)
"Germany, 11: Remagen (11)

"An estimated 2,754 civilians were killed in London by V-2 attacks with another 6,523 injured, which is two people killed per V-2 rocket."

'Stern' is portrayed as simply using the German military to further his space exploration goals who is then, in turn, used by the German military to bomb the shit out of their opponents. How many scientists are there today who're in similar situations doing military research. Pittsburgh, where I live, is a center for robotics research. Some of it is funded by the miiitary. I've met at least one robotics researcher who's used the standard disclaimer to say: 'I don't know what they do w/ my research' as if to, thereby, wash his hands of any murderous consequences. I can't honestly say I accept that as an excuse. Nonetheless, to return to Garden on the Moon, it's thought-provoking to consider 'Stern''s actual intentions. Boulle speculates on 'Stern''s early life (presumably based on some biographical material):

"He spent eighteen months sowing his wild oats. Then, at the age of nineteen, he had looked at the bright young things with whom he consorted, as though to say: Is that enough? Are you satisfied?" - p 25

I find the use of "bright young things" as an expression intersting b/c I've previously seen it used exclusively in relation to young British people in Evelyn Waugh stories (see my review of Decline and Fall here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2250721945 & of Vile Bodies here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2262010402 ).

"Three months after the successful test of the first V-2, Peenemünde was still waiting for the necessary funds to pursue its work but kept encountering hostile skepticism from both civil and military authorities. All that Schleuder had received was a brief note from the Ministry informing him that a plan was being drawn up for mass production of the new rocket. No date had been given and no arrangemnt had been made for more extensive research.

"Stern roared with anger when he read this note and pitched into Schleuder so fiercely that the latter decided, one day in January, 1943, to request an interview with Speer and try to obtain from him that famous number one priority they felt they had deserved." - p 31

I have a neoist friend who read Speer's memoirs, probably Spandau: The Secret Diaries, & wrote me that he didn't think Speer shd've been put in prison or some such. Speer served 20 years. I disagreed w/ my friend. Consider this:

"Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer (/ʃpɛr/; German: [ˈʃpeːɐ̯]" [..] "March 19, 1905 – September 1, 1981) was a German architect who was, for most of World War II, Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production for Nazi Germany. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office. As "the Nazi who said sorry", he accepted moral responsibility at the Nuremberg trials and in his memoirs for complicity in crimes of the Nazi regime, while insisting he had been ignorant of the Holocaust." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Speer

I think that being "Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production" was more than enough reason to convict him of war crimes, "principally for the use of forced labor" as the Wikipedia entry goes on to say. I'd be perfectly happy if similar people in the US goverment were punished. Whoever was responsible for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki should've been tried at Nuremberg too.

"When I started pressing the point with Speer, I was put in my place somewhat hastily. 'In view of the situation of our army in Stalingrad,' he said, 'this is hardly the moment to talk about rockets.'" - p 35

""It's appalling. Worse than ever. The Stalingrad army has surrendered with Von Paulus. A hundred thousand men and over twenty generals taken prisoner.""

[..]

""The Führer has just decided to grant us the number one priority and all the funds we need."

""What!"

"A loud cheer echoed around the mess.

""I forbid any of you to rejoice," Schleuder resumed in a fierce tone that contrasted increasingly with his air of jubilation. "But this is the situation. I'll repeat it: the Führer has given orders for us to intensify our research. He wants more rockets and bigger, more powerful rockets. And he wants them quickly."" - p 37

For me, having Stalingrad in the background is important. Having recently witnessed a very dramatic & highly recommended movie on this subject, Enemy at the Gates, Jaen-Jacques Annaud, 2001, starring Rachel Weisz, probably the 1st actress/celebrity I can easily imagine myself falling foolishly in love w/, the harshness of the seige of Stalingrad has been on my mind. The suffering must've been almost unimaginable. The opening scene alone gives a pretty good idea of this.

The "Allies" do bombing raids on Peenemünde but don't do sufficient damage to stop the progress on the V-2:

"A few isolated bombs fell fairly close, but the airport was not the target. It was definitely the base. From where they stood it looked as though it were going up in flames, especially the living quarters.

""They seem to be purposefully aiming at the staff," Schleuder observed anxiously. He was thinking of his colleagues.

"This was partly true. Acting on sound information, the Allies regarded the scientists' quarters as a target just as important as the workshops and the factories. They knew that certain brains cannot be replaced. Stern at this moment had the feeling that he himself was the main objective of the raid, and he glowed with pride." - p 42

"At the beginning of 1944, Stern, who would have liked to devote himself entirely to the study of new missiles, was obliged to come back to the V-2, which was not functioning properly. In fact, scarcely ten or twenty percent of the trial shots were reaching their selected targets." - p 45

"The promise made to Himmler was kept. On the agreed date the V-2's began to fall on England, but it was too late to prevent the Allied landing. Shortly afterward the enemy captured the nearest bases on the coast. Peenemünde was bombarded without respite. Other test bases , other factories, were built further to the east. One after another, these installations had to be abandoned as a result of the Russian advance, and the materiel brought further back toward the interior as the unconquered regions of Germany gradually lessened. Schleuder, Stern, and a few others were kept traveling all over the Reich in search of safer spots in which to set up fresh installations, harassed by Hitler, Himmler, and the Nazi High Command, who had pinned their last hope on the secret weapon.

"They succeeded for a time in maintaining a precarious production, under exhausting working conditions. But for the last month all hope had been lost. On March 27, 1945, the last V-2 had been hurled into space. There was now no factory or suitable base left." - p 55

Go team go. 'Stern' switches to the winning team, the losers no longer cd afford to give him a good enuf contract.

"Whenever he had to deal with the authorities, Stern wisely refrained from mentioning the moon and instead discussed terrestrial satellites, taking care to point out that the space program could limit itself at first to small missiles weighing no more than few pounds, which would be of immediate practical use. There, he had ha some success. A precise program had been drawn up. That Army was preparing to launch one of these satellites, under his direction, and although the funds for this operation were limited, he thought he would be able to put it into effect by the beginning of 1958, just a few months away. It was far from what he had in mind. It was nevertheless an initial step." - p 74

Even though I was alive during the 'space race' & even though I was somewhat aware of the intense propaganda wars going on between the USSR & the USA & even though I read science fiction & liked it very much & even though I was interested in human exploration off-planet, I don't remember giving much thought to who's-going-to-get-off-planet-1st? Reading this made me finally conscious of how deep the competition ran.

""Daddy, the Russians have launched a satellite!"" - p 85

If I ever have a child I'm going to name it Laika — or Leica if its eyes focus fast.

"One month later, on November third, the launching of the second Russian satellite and the brief odyssey of the dog Laika revived the bitterness of the space fanatics at La Grange and the other few bases scattered throughout the United States." - p 97

I've always felt like Laika got a bad deal. I'm sure the dog was well-trained & very obedient to its human 'friends' only to find itself dying of lack of oxygen off-planet?! Never trust a human. It's interesting to think that the Russians enjoyed a period of superior technical advancement to the US at the same time that their cars & cameras & other technology were being mocked as shoddy. It makes me wonder whether there actually was better Russian machinery than US propaganda wd ever admit.

"Zharov, in an offhand manner, reminded them of the weight of the three Russian projectiles and the following progression: 182 pounds for the first, 1237.6 for the second, which had the dog Laika on board—the Russian had mentioned this quite casually—and 2919 pounds for the third, an absolute flying laboratory. The four American projectiles together did not exceed 110 pounds!" - pp 115-116

How many people remember or care about President Ray-Gun's 'Star Wars' proposals?:

"On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan made an audacious announcement: America would weaponize space.

"This was no idle threat. Reagan had built his political reputation on tough-talking the Soviet Union, and during a time in the Cold War when intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) made shooting a nuclear warhead from Russia to major American cities a realistic threat, any new military technology could mean gaining the upper hand in a decades-long struggle. The Russians had just put gun turrets on their space stations. Granted, they'd only been fired once, and at nothing in particular. But we had to ready our retaliation.

"The response was the Strategic Defense Initiative, the plan would put in place a system of satellites to shoot ICBMs out of the sky as a nuclear deterrent from above. It would have been an expensive undertaking to say the least, clocking in at anywhere from $100 billion to $1 trillion." - https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/strategic-defense-initiative-reag...

Pierre Boulle writes about the 'space race' in Garden on the Moon in a fairly realistic manner: what starts off as military research becomes more of a superiority contest between politically used scientists. But there are other types of SF writers than Boulle:

"Larry Niven had the mind for space. An award-winning and best-selling author, his first installment of the Ringworld series -- a futuristic and sometimes tongue-in-cheek saga about a massive space station that orbits a distant star as an artificial planet -- was considered an instant classic. The book still remains one of the most popular of the several dozen he's published, and he continues to flesh out the series.

"But in 1980, Niven took a career detour. Soon after the election, the author hosted a group of colleagues for a meeting at his home to discuss President-elect Reagan's stance on space. The "Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy" included mostly right-leaning military figures, ex-astronauts, scientists, plus a number of Niven's science-fiction writer contemporaries. The group had the backing of the American Astronautical Society and the L-5 Society, both of which hoped to chart the course of the United States' space interests over the next two decades, with the more immediate goal of building its recommendations into Reagan's official policies.

"In attendance was Jerry Pournelle, Niven’s co-author on both the 1974 book The Mote in God's Eye -- about a worst-case-scenario alien invasion -- and 1977's Lucifer's Hammer -- about a comet impact that creates widespread anarchy. A self-described centrist -- but only in terms of his own elaborate political mapping system, the Pournelle Axes -- Pournelle believed in a robust, technocratic military state wedged between the New Left and conservative factions of government." - https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/strategic-defense-initiative-reag...

As much SF as I read & as much as I love the stuff I still haven't read Niven or Pournelle yet — probably at least partially b/c I've always had the impression that they wrote space opera of the more typical weapons & monsters variety. It's interesting to have that impression further verified by the above. ( )
  tENTATIVELY | Apr 3, 2022 |
Read this in the seventies. (Spoiler warning) The most striking feature was Boulle's suggestion that the Japanese would beat the Americans to the moon because they would not get hung up on using precious resources to get the astronauts back to earth. ( )
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